Between the Lines
by WhiteFlowersOnOurBacks
Summary: Sebastian didn't do relationships and Hunter didn't do guys and what they were doing didn't count as anything, anyways.
1. Between the Lines

**A/N- oops. I wrote huntbastian **

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It hadn't been planned, the thing that they had. It had started out as casual during their days at Dalton and stayed casual throughout college. Never planned, because planning wasn't casual. They just happened to bump into each other. A lot.

(Understandable at Dalton where you knew everybody and if you didn't see someone for three days you started thinking the worst. A little less explainable with Sebastian at Columbia and Hunter up at West Point. But it wasn't Hunter's fault that he found himself in the city frequently and he just happened to end up in the same places as his fellow former Warbler. Just like it wasn't Sebastian's fault that the area around West Point was a great place for a run, even in the middle of winter.)

So they continued to sometimes see each other. But that was all. Just sometimes seeing. And if sometimes they ended up in bed (sometimes being always and if necessary a bathroom stall or against a tree would do) well that was part of the seeing.

Sebastian didn't do relationships and Hunter didn't do guys (just ask Kathleen, his girlfriend of six years) and what they were doing didn't count as anything, anyways.

"We need to stop meeting up like this," Hunter would groan as Sebastian rolled off of him and onto his back.

"Guess I'll have to find a new bar," Sebastian would answer as Hunter got dressed. And somehow, a couple weeks later, Hunter would manage to find it too.

Or

"I had a different type of cardio in mind when I got in my car this morning," panted into Hunter's ear as they tried to recover their breaths.

Sebastian's friends know better than to comment, just smirk when the impeccably dressed man shows besides their table and play along at being surprised.

Hunter's friends don't know.

Their arrangement (for lack of a better word) can't last forever, they're both aware. Graduation is almost upon them (less than three months). Sebastian has already secured a job with a New York based firm he'd been interning for and Hunter? Well, where Hunter was headed even creative-minded Sebastian would be hard-pressed to manage a run in.

"If you're ever in New York," Sebastian begins saying with a casual shrug.

Unless Hunter mumbles first;

"If you're ever in the area."

To which Sebastian responds, "Could be one hell of a vacation, Cadet Clarington."

But just because it's not secret that each time might be their last (maybe forever, some tiny voice in the deepest recesses of Sebastian's mind whispers because you never know, not with the world that way it is.) doesn't mean they ever talk about it.

(Occasionally, Hunter finds himself wondering if Sebastian could understand. Kathleen doesn't but he'd never expected her to. Sebastian is still only a civilian but when no ones looking he wears the weariness of a soldier. It wouldn't be a perfect understanding, but it could be something.)

Except they aren't anything. Never were and never will be.

And if, when May comes, Sebastian finds himself once more driving up state (two days too late) and Hunter somehow meanders in to Sebastian's preferred coffee shop (three hours too early) no one is any the wiser. Not even them.


	2. Let it All Unfurl

**Author's Note: Oh christ, I wrote this like 3 months ago or something and I absolutely no idea why it didn't get posted over here too. But I'm working on restoring the balance between here and tumblr a bit, so here you go. **

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It would happen like this:

They'd run into each other, this time actually unplanned. A complete coincidence as they collide in aisle 4 of a grocery store or he'll be at a gas station filling up his tank and a BMW would pull up in the bay next to him- long legs and broad smile unfolding together. It would be a boys' reunion- back clapping and 'how have you been, you old so-and-so. Still alive I see?'

Fingers might linger. An unnecessary skimming in the pulse point over his wrist. His own hands just barely curling in the hairs at the nape of Sebastian's neck.

They would make plans to meet up for drinks; somewhere between the base and wherever it was Sebastian was living. (Because they wouldn't be living too near each other. That would be cliché and unrealistic.) Numbers would be exchanged since their plans would only be tentative. Waiting to be solidified at a closer date.

The bar would be of Sebastian's choosing because everywhere Hunter knew of would be filled with other soldiers and it was nice to get away every once in a while. The bartender would know Sebastian, smile familiarly at him and ask who his friend was.

'We went to high school together," he'd say with an easy grin. West Point wouldn't be mentioned, nor his enlistment and subsequent deployments. Maybe he'd even pretend to have a different occupation altogether. Something in medicine maybe (the only other fantasy he had ever entertained). And Sebastian would play along, asking about his practice and teasing that, of course, he would go into surgery.

When they finally get away from the bar and to their own table it would turn to reminiscing: recalling fellow Warblers and laughing about how obviously fake Mr. Armstrong's toupee was. Hunter would comment about the French teacher's tits as Sebastian grimaced and made lewd insinuations about all the things he had wanted to do to the history intern.

After a couple of drinks the conversation would drift towards college. Hunt would be the one to bring it up; casually asking after Elaine or Robby, the two who were almost always out during their run-ins Was Elaine still seeing that guy? Had Robby and his brother ever actually started that band or had corporate America swallowed their dreams? They would never actually _say_ anything about the after of those meetings but they would both _know_ that the other was remembering.

It would end one of three ways (depending on how close the gun fire was that night and how melancholic Hunter was feeling).

a) Drinks were just drinks. The night ended with another round of back clapping and promises to meet up again. Maybe Sebastian had finally settled down or maybe whatever had been between them had just disappeared. They'd keep in contact; meet up a handful of times a year, go to each other's weddings. At Dalton reunions they'd sit together and mercilessly tease Nick and Jeff about how oblivious they had been in high school as they passed around pictures of their adopted sons.

b) Drinks at a bar turned into coffee at Sebastian's. They make it through about half a cup before Hunter is driven to complete distraction by the way Sebastian's tongue darts out to lick his lips every few sips. Sebastian hauls him across the sofa and they fuck there, just as intensely as they did when they were 19. They then move to the shower and from there the bedroom. Neither of them have anywhere to be the next day, which is good because they end up sleeping until almost noon. As he's leaving, Sebastian calls after him, "See you around, Clarington."

c) C starts off a lot like b; tripping up the hallway together to the living room. Sebastian disappears into the kitchen and Hunter just looks around. Tries to see whether he knows this version of the other man. Everything about the room is as foreign as it is familiar. He recognizes a painting on the wall from years ago and everything else he's never seen. But all in all it looks exactly like he would have expected it too; a weird mix of European and industrial that somehow works.

When Sebastian comes back it's with a bottle of brandy and two glasses instead of mugs of coffee. Hunter's not a big brandy drinker but he likes how not him it is and how it burns as it goes down. There's something warm and inviting about it and he makes a note to drink it more often.

They're on their second glass and waxing philosophical about the world when Sebastian's eyes turn dark and Hunter barely has time to put his drink down before lips are claiming his and tongue and teeth are marking him as their own.

"Why?" He pants into a heated kiss, getting nothing more than a grumbled moan in return. Their bodies are pressed as close together as humanly possible and the scorching heat between the two of them is nearly overwhelming. It takes all of his discipline to keep himself from just giving in but this newfound epiphany rattles around his head and he _needs_ to know.

"Why didn't you tell me," he lets out in a gasping breath, tilting his head back to provide better access to his neck. "I was in love with you?"

Sebastian pulls back and smirks. "Why didn't you ever ask?"


End file.
